When did you begin making craft?
I’ve always been a bit of a crafty one, for as long as I can remember really – when I was a kid I used to make really ugly furry bean bags and tie dyed doona covers and really bad patchwork quilts! And those black painted boards that you would hammer nails into and then twist glittery string around them to make psychedelic patterns (I was a child of the 70s)?!! Now THAT was good craft!! But crafting for a career…. I started studying ceramics 11 years ago, and practicing professionally about 5 years after that. (And I don’t make fluffy bean bags anymore… yes, a real loss to the craft world.)
How did it become your career?
I had become very bored with my job as an English teacher and was really just casting around for something else to do. As part of that process I enrolled in a night class at TAFE to try out a bit of pottery and after my first class I quit my job and enrolled to study ceramics full-time. It was a bit of a bolt-of–lightning-from-the-sky moment. I never really expected it to become my career, but after 5 years of study I figured I should at least give it a shot. And it seems to have worked out ok!
What appeals to you about ceramics?
I was initially really drawn to the idea of making functional objects, things that people could use. I felt that if I was going to fill the world with more STUFF I may as well make it useful stuff. That’s still important to me, but over time I have become interested in the endless possibilities that ceramics offers for exploring broader ideas. There has been a nice synergy between my long interest in the domestic sphere and the incredible scope ceramics provides to explore that. What also appeals to me about ceramics is the endless possibilities the material affords, its versatility. It’s a material you can constantly learn from, struggle with and delight in. Its impossible to get bored with it!
Who's craft work are you really enjoying at the moment?
Oh where do I start!! Hmmmm…I have long been a fan of Kirsten Coehllo’s ceramics and was recently given 2 of the most beautiful pieces of her work – a cup and a bowl. I have never drunk so much tea in my life! They just beg to be used. I once wrote of her work that whenever I saw it I wanted to hold it to my cheek – the smooth surfaces, the cool, beautiful glazes, and her forms are so refined and unfussy. There is a real art (or should I say craft?) in bringing form, finish and function together the way she does.
What do you think is the future for craft?
I am hopeful for the continued vibrant existence, development and survival of the crafts. The (very unfortunate) closing down of some departments and schools certainly creates challenges for this, but also provides opportunities to create alternative models for learning and other innovative and exciting ways for people to engage with craft. It’s often through the big challenges that the big breakthroughs come.
Is craft a revolutionary act?
Craft is made in and exists in many different contexts, but yes, I think Craft can be a revolutionary act. A lot of today’s craft practices and maker’s approaches to craft could be considered revolutionary in the sense that they are consciously, as the curatorial rationale for this exhibition states, rejecting the dominant culture of consumption and the loss of community, and re-engaging with cooperative and traditional approaches to making. Certainly recently there has been a strong reclamation of craft in response to the (crazy) world we currently live in, and I think that’s fantastic. But I don’t think craft is by its nature necessarily a revolutionary act. I think it is more of an innate act. I think humans always have and always will make things by hand, for a whole lot of different reasons.
I’ve always been a bit of a crafty one, for as long as I can remember really – when I was a kid I used to make really ugly furry bean bags and tie dyed doona covers and really bad patchwork quilts! And those black painted boards that you would hammer nails into and then twist glittery string around them to make psychedelic patterns (I was a child of the 70s)?!! Now THAT was good craft!! But crafting for a career…. I started studying ceramics 11 years ago, and practicing professionally about 5 years after that. (And I don’t make fluffy bean bags anymore… yes, a real loss to the craft world.)
How did it become your career?
I had become very bored with my job as an English teacher and was really just casting around for something else to do. As part of that process I enrolled in a night class at TAFE to try out a bit of pottery and after my first class I quit my job and enrolled to study ceramics full-time. It was a bit of a bolt-of–lightning-from-the-sky moment. I never really expected it to become my career, but after 5 years of study I figured I should at least give it a shot. And it seems to have worked out ok!
What appeals to you about ceramics?
I was initially really drawn to the idea of making functional objects, things that people could use. I felt that if I was going to fill the world with more STUFF I may as well make it useful stuff. That’s still important to me, but over time I have become interested in the endless possibilities that ceramics offers for exploring broader ideas. There has been a nice synergy between my long interest in the domestic sphere and the incredible scope ceramics provides to explore that. What also appeals to me about ceramics is the endless possibilities the material affords, its versatility. It’s a material you can constantly learn from, struggle with and delight in. Its impossible to get bored with it!
Who's craft work are you really enjoying at the moment?
Oh where do I start!! Hmmmm…I have long been a fan of Kirsten Coehllo’s ceramics and was recently given 2 of the most beautiful pieces of her work – a cup and a bowl. I have never drunk so much tea in my life! They just beg to be used. I once wrote of her work that whenever I saw it I wanted to hold it to my cheek – the smooth surfaces, the cool, beautiful glazes, and her forms are so refined and unfussy. There is a real art (or should I say craft?) in bringing form, finish and function together the way she does.
What do you think is the future for craft?
I am hopeful for the continued vibrant existence, development and survival of the crafts. The (very unfortunate) closing down of some departments and schools certainly creates challenges for this, but also provides opportunities to create alternative models for learning and other innovative and exciting ways for people to engage with craft. It’s often through the big challenges that the big breakthroughs come.
Is craft a revolutionary act?
Craft is made in and exists in many different contexts, but yes, I think Craft can be a revolutionary act. A lot of today’s craft practices and maker’s approaches to craft could be considered revolutionary in the sense that they are consciously, as the curatorial rationale for this exhibition states, rejecting the dominant culture of consumption and the loss of community, and re-engaging with cooperative and traditional approaches to making. Certainly recently there has been a strong reclamation of craft in response to the (crazy) world we currently live in, and I think that’s fantastic. But I don’t think craft is by its nature necessarily a revolutionary act. I think it is more of an innate act. I think humans always have and always will make things by hand, for a whole lot of different reasons.
Log onto Mel Robson's blog at http://www.feffakookan.blogspot.com/
Images: Mel Robson, Homeing pigeons, willow, 2008; The Absence of Objects, 2007; Precious Little, 2007.
1 comment:
Beautiful and amazing craft. I love browsing your blog.
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